Kuwait Airways Corp will be privatized in March as per a 2008 decision. Government will sell 40 per cent of the flag carrier to the public and 35 per cent to a long-term investor

State-owned Kuwait Airways will be privatized by the end of March, the chairman of the Gulf Arab carrier was quoted as saying in a Kuwait newspaper on Wednesday.

Hamad al-Falah told Arabic language daily al-Nahar that "the transformation procedures are in the final stages."

Last August, Kuwait appointed Citigroup Inc., Ernst & Young and aviation services firm Seabury to handle the privatization of its national carrier.

Kuwait's parliament approved a plan in 2008 to privatize loss-making Kuwait Airways Corp. Under the plan, the government will sell 40 per cent of the flag carrier to the public and 35 per cent to a long-term investor.

The airline has a fleet of 17 planes.

Falah also told the newspaper that its five Airbus A300 jets fleet, grounded last month for inspection, were back in service

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